I sang a little while and then flew on.

It seems like as a rule that if you saw the Dead play an off show -- which did happen, though not all that often (and even an off show had plenty to give) -- but if it happened, you had excellent odds of hearing an exceptional show the next night. Generally they seemed to know when they’d played a real clunker and wanted to make it up to us, and tried, and did. I think maybe that’s the case here. The 27th has lots of technical problems and a bumpy road musically. The 28th is on point from the first note Lovelight cuts in on. And Bob Matthews has the sound down tight.

The opening Lovelight has a markedly different feel coming at the beginning of the show -- a fresh, up energy, a faster pace -- it’s a crisp take-off, rather than its customary long slow big build to the final climax -- and the segue into Me & My Uncle is just exactly perfect. The acoustic interlude is folksy, poised and measured -- not too short, not too long -- and works great to set up the return to electric in a state of the art China Cat > Rider. Good Lovin’s drum duo and the jam following are absolutely primo -- the two-headed four-armed four-foot beast Shiva dancing. The way the drummers come back for another extended excursion between Alligator and The Other One may be unique. The last 40 minutes are all surprises. A fierce rough-and-tumble Other One segues into Mason’s Children and then briefly into Caution before the return to Lovelight caps the show and rides it home.

These three soundboard reels are a phenomenal gift -- a complete run of Dead home shows, from that most down-home of home venues, the Family Dog at the Great Highway, three complete shows in crystalline sound from early 1970, that most protean period of their evolution, as they begin launching forth from psychedelia into ... country, folk, blues, rhythm and blues, motown ...

The best Mason’s Children we have on tape is Fillmore West 2/5/70, nothing else comes close. It’s the only one we have that gets jammed out properly. Mason’s Children, like New Speedway Boogie, was provoked by and comments on Altamont and both got dropped as the echoes and smoke of that debacle faded. Mason’s Children had to wait for Stu Allen to revive it and give it its full proper due (even Phil caught on after a while) but New Speedway got revived in ’91, four days after the start of the First Gulf War because, after all, to our grief, it proves to be perennial: THIS DARKNESS GOT TO GIVE.

This show is very good love light> me and my uncle is sick you can hear the notes of it a few minutes before they go into. Also they are basically playing new speedway boogie but pig is singing BBM super cool!!!!

Does anyone else hear it? Sounds like the identical riff. Other people hearing Satisfaction in Mason's, maybe it was a theme this night

Great recording.

After this version of Mason's how could they have ever stopped playing it. Guess they thought it just couldn't get better.

Really had fun listening to this. The acoustic stuff is so pure it baffles me how unbelievably good it sounds. The electric songs are no slouch either. Plenty of brilliance, and the unusual set order makes for plenty of suspense with Lovelight finishing the show off proper. Great recording, shut my eyes and imagined being there. Awesome stuff.

A nice little Lovelight sandwich to fill all your needs of the great 1970 Dead. I love their acoustic sets of 1970 and even though this one is short, it is still excellent. Mason's Children is nice, with an influenced Jumpin' Jack Flash intro.

This one has its moments, an interesting Lovelight sandwich. The short acoustic set, abbreviated due to monitor issues, is still pretty sweet, particularly Little Sadie and what might be the best ever acoustic Black Peter.

Some nice jamming during The Other One, but this really doesnt catch fire, or hold any momentum for very long. Still, the sound/mix is excellent. (96 pts)

I never noticed it in any of the other versions of the song (I'll have to go back and listen), but when listening to this one I noticed that you could lay the opening of The Stone's 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' (which is also the primary theme in the verse) over the intro and it would fit perfectly. JJF came out in '68, so I doubt that there was any intentional "flattery" going on in either direction, but it is interesting when one realizes that two groups acid-ifying the blues from two totally different directions could have arrived at such a similar place.

Kudos -- as always -- to Mr. Cotsman for an excellent seed. As others have noted, a great recording of an excellent show!

"Certainly in the case of the Dead, there's value in studying the evolution over time."
-Bliar Jackson

Indeed. The beginning of Mason sounds just like "Satisfaction". I don't know about through the whole thing since I just sampled each tune to make sure they downloaded fully. Sounds like a great show though. Good mix, good setlist with a little acoustic set thrown in.
Mason's Children has always been a favorite of mine. I always wish it would go on for about 12-15 minutes cause the jams always get me going (like a good "Dancin' in the Streets" from this era, as a matter of fact there's a good Dancin' from the night before so get that show too).

The Last Masons? Say it ain't so Jerry. Why did they stop doin' it?

DOES ANYONE ELSE HEAR "SATISFACTION" THROUGHOUT MASONS?

Hey I think this is a really underrated show. Not the best of 1970 but definatley worth checking out. THe sound Quality and dynamics are excellent. Lots of range and a super mix. You can hear all instruments clearly , especially Phil. The bass is not thumpy at all but taught.
Alligator>Drums>Other one> Masons? Come on !

Roger that !

very hot. 4 star performance and 4 and a half on sound.

This is a "nice" show: a lot of variety with the acoustic stuff in the middle of the set. Quality is good, but the band doesn't really get heated up until the Other One. Not to say it's not worth listening to, it is! Overall, I liked it.

Oh yeah...nice Lovelight>MAMU to open.